Table Of Content¿PRIMO HERMANO O FALSO AMIGO? ESPAÑOL PARA ITALIANOS
by
Lorella Di Gregorio
A thesis submitted to the Graduate Council of
Texas State University in partial fulfillment
of the requirements for the degree of
Master of Arts
with a Major in Spanish
May 2014
Committee Members:
Matthew L. Juge, Chair
Yasmine Beale-Rivaya
Antonio Gragera
COPYRIGHT
by
Lorella Di Gregorio
2014
FAIR USE AND AUTHOR’S PERMISSION STATEMENT
Fair Use
This work is protected by the Copyright Laws of the United States (Public Law 94-553,
section 107). Consistent with fair use as defined in the Copyright Laws, brief quotations
from this material are allowed with proper acknowledgement. Use of this material for
financial gain without the author’s express written permission is not allowed.
Duplication Permission
As the copyright holder of this work I, Lorella Di Gregorio, refuse permission to copy in
excess of the “Fair Use” exemption without my written permission.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
My thesis is the crowning of an important achievement that has been possible due to the
amazing environment that surrounds me at Texas State.
When I first walked into the Department of Modern Languages, I never imagined how
much encouragement I would have received from faculty and staff, colleagues and
friends, who over the past four semesters have become my U.S. family!
I want to thank Dr. Robert Fischer, Dr. Catherine Jaffe and Ms. Elizabeth Prado, who
were the first people I met, and despite my initial disorientation gave me all the
confidence I needed.
I thank my thesis director, Dr. Matthew Juge, for leaving me extremely free in the writing
of this work. Thank you to Dr. Yasmine Rivaya and Dr. Antonio Gragera, whose time
and work on my paper, as well as their friendliness, have been invaluable.
Special thanks to Dr. Agustin Cuadrado who has been like an older brother to me and
who has always helped, supported and valued me. Thanks to Dr. Lucy Harney for having
always being a pleasure to work with. Thanks to Dr. Moira Di Mauro for giving me the
“Italian” moments I am lacking here.
I also want to thank that student who, in declaring that the language spoken in Milan is
Spanish, convinced me to undertake this research.
Finally, I thank both my native and my international friends, along with my Italian
friends for all the positive waves that have always been sent.
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Last but not least, I thank my whole family that I miss every day, and my soul mate who
made a superhuman effort to convince me to move to the U.S., but to whom, now, I can
be just grateful for this wonderful adventure we are living together.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ................................................................................. iv
ABSTRACT ....................................................................................................... viii
CHAPTER
I. INTRODUCIÓN ...................................................................................... 1
II. UNAS INTREVISTAS ............................................................................ 4
III. EL APRENDIZAJE DE ESPAÑOL COMO L2 .................................... 7
Dificultades generales ......................................................................... 7
Dificultades particulares ................................................................... 13
IV. DIVERSIDAD LINGÜÍSTICA EN LA PENÍNSULA IBÉRICA ...... 17
V. DIVERSIDAD LINGÜÍSTICA EN LA PENÍNSULA ITALIANA .... 19
VI. COMPARACIONES: ESPAÑOL, ITALIANO Y SICILIANO ......... 27
Fonética ............................................................................................. 27
Morfología ........................................................................................ 32
Sintaxis .............................................................................................. 38
Léxico ............................................................................................... 42
VII. UNA FUERZA DE ATRACCIÓN QUE CONDUCE AL ERROR .. 47
VIII. EJEMPLOS LITERARIOS ............................................................... 49
IX. CONCLUSIONES ............................................................................... 53
APÉNDICE .......................................................................................................... 55
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BIBLIOGRAFÍA ................................................................................................ 62
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ABSTRACT
As a native Italian speaker, I often have to face the common misconception that learning
Spanish is easy for Italian speakers. "Are you Italian? It is easy for you to learn Spanish,
then…." This is the most common comment I have heard.
On both the diachronic level (for the development of the two Romance languages from
the same language, Latin) and the synchronic level (especially in the area which, from
XVIII to XIX centuries, was called Kingdom of the Two Sicilies) the encounter between
these two linguistic realities is important. If on one hand the information provided above
supports and tests the undeniable correspondence of the two languages, on the other hand
it can account for a very different evolution.
The ease of an Italian student in learning the first level of knowledge of Spanish is based
on similarities (sounds, sentence construction, etc.); nevertheless, also the difficulties
which the same student has, facing a deeper knowledge of Spanish, are explainable by the
similarity.
In order to learn a completely different language than our own, we start from scratch and
with many difficulties. Here we are trying to illustrate: first, how the native speakers of
any language approach the Spanish language as L2, in general; then the advantages in
having to start in medias res, for speakers of Romance Languages such as Italian and
Sicilian; finally, the problems to raise the level in the latter case, despite the overall
homogeneity between first and second language, and in light of this.
viii
With a comparative approach, I intend to dismantle the simplistic belief that considers
Spanish and Italian only as sisters-languages. They should be seen as enemies as well.
The methods of learning Spanish for an Italian native speaker, all the dynamics that first
facilitate things and then (when the study deepens) make them complicated, are the basis
of my research. The biggest problem in the error of judgment we are trying to debunk, is,
above all, the lack of knowledge of the huge linguistic variety of Italian language
(dialects, habits, idioms, regional uses, etc.): standard Italian is totally different than the
varieties simplistically called dialects.
Even Literature can help us to support the notion of the contamination that has always
interested the two languages, but, even more, the radical differences that make it so
difficult to properly use for speakers from the other language.
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I. INTRODUCTIÓN
Como hablante nativa de italiano, a menudo me enfrento con el error de
apreciación de que el aprendizaje de español es fácil para los hablantes de italiano.
“¿Es usted italiana? Pues, es fácil para usted aprender el español”... Esta es una
consideración muy frecuente.
Tanto en el nivel diacrónico (para la descendencia de las dos lenguas romances
a partir del latín) como en el sincrónico (sobre todo en la zona que por siglos ha
pertenecido al llamado Reino de las Dos Sicilias), el encuentro entre estas dos
realidades lingüísticas es importante. Si por un lado esta comunión apoya y pone a
prueba sus similitudes, por otro lado puede dar cuenta de una evolución muy
diferente.
La facilidad para un estudiante italiano para aprender la lengua española se
basa en las semejanzas (sonidos, construcción sintáctica, etc.); sin embargo, las
dificultades a las que el mismo estudiante se enfrenta una vez que tiene que
profundizar sus conocimientos del español, son explicadas también por estas
semejanzas.
Al aprender un idioma completamente distinto del propio, se empieza desde
cero y con una serie de dificultades. Este trabajo ilustra, en primer lugar, cómo los
hablantes nativos de cualquier lengua enfocan el idioma español como L2, en
general; entonces, las ventajas de tener que empezar in medias res, para los
hablantes de lenguas romances como el italiano y el siciliano; por último, los
problemas para elevar el nivel en el caso de lenguas parecidas, a pesar de la
homogeneidad global entre la primera y la segunda lengua, y en vista de ella.
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Description:As a native Italian speaker, I often have to face the common misconception that learning. Spanish is easy for Italian speakers. "Are you Italian?
